Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Past Meets Present ❯ Chapter 20 ( Chapter 21 )

“I’m gonna miss you, Mei,” Duo told the Chinese woman as he hugged her goodbye. It was just a few hours later and he was standing in the entrance hall, saying his final farewells. Whispering in her ear, he added, “And make that man of yours loosen up.”

Meiran gave a chuckle, which he took as a yes she would. He then squatted so that he was Xin Xin’s height. “Bye Xin Xin. You be a good girl, okay,” he told the child. She nodded solemnly. Throwing her arms around him, she answered that she would miss him.

Hilde had already said her goodbyes and was now waiting for the man who was like a brother to join her. They would head to the shuttle port together, but then split ways. Hilde was going to L3 and Duo to the Peacemillion. Exactly why she was heading to L3, well, no one was quite sure. But she was and there was no stopping her.

The duo walked out of the building, waving as they left. It was then that Xin Xin turned to her mother. “Why did they leave?”

The remaining members of the group faced her. Surprisingly enough, it was her father who answered the young girl’s question. “Duo got a job far away from here. And I don’t know why Hilde left,” he told his daughter.

“When are they coming back?” Xin Xin wondered aloud. He sighed and told her that he didn’t know when.

“This place is unnaturally quiet,” Trowa commented the next day. Wufei nodded, adding, “I never thought I would see the day where I missed Maxwell’s chatter.”

“You know, this was an interesting little vacation,” their blonde friend put in. “But I like the thought of heading back home.”

“Back to work,” Wufei agreed. “It was nice, not having anything to do.”

“But we knew this would happen,” Trowa pointed out. Quatre sighed; “True, true.”

The tallest of the trio leaned against the house, watching the sunset in the horizon. “I do have to wonder what happened to Heero though,” Quatre continued. “He left so mysteriously.”

“He will be fine,” Trowa said with a smile. Wufei snorted, adding, “The guy is almost indestructible.”

“Kind of like Wing.”

“Kind of.” Trowa agreed.

It was quiet for awhile before the Arabic man spoke. “Do you guys ever wonder if we did the right thing? Destroying the Gundams, I mean.”

“What’s done is done. It is best not to dwell on the past,” Wufei answered. “In a perfect world, they would never haven needed to be created,” Trowa added, picking up his friend’s train of thought.

“Weapons of mass destruction, built only to fight.”

“And us?” It was the Chinese man who had asked the question but neither of his comrades answered. Not that they didn’t already know what the answer was.

Meiran sighed as she looked out the window of the moving vehicle. They were heading back to the guys’ house in the city. Trowa and Quatre were in the front, the former being their driver. Seated next to her was her daughter with Wufei on the other side of Xin Xin.

The ride took them several hours but they were a lot closer to the city than she’d thought they were. It was a relief to walk through the doors of the house.

Quatre almost immediately went to the living room where he groaned at all the different messages on the answering machine. And their number was a private one too.

“Hello baby brother;” he hit the next button.

“Mr. Winner, I’m pleased to-;” Again, the next button was hit.

“Mr. Barton, I’m from the;” the next button was promptly used. The next message was from Dorothy and after that, Sally Po. Relena was the next in line with four telemarketers after her. Duo had left a quick message saying hi.

“Yé zhong wangsun. You are dead. The Empress of Rì Ben has commanded it so;” a strange and raspy male voice was the last message. Quatre stopped, chilled by the words. But as to what some of the words meant, he did not know. They did sound Oriental though, so it seemed like a good guess that Wufei would know.

“Hey, Wufei, can you come here?” He called out. His Oriental friend showed up a few minutes later on the heels of Trowa, who even though he hadn’t been called, noted the strange tone in Quatre’s voice. The blond Arab played the last message over.

“So, what does it mean?” Trowa finally asked after a very pregnant pause.

“It means,” the Chinese man began, “that the apparent Japanese Empress has commanded the death of a bastard prince.”

“How does that fit in with any of us though?” Quatre questioned. The other men shook their heads, clueless as well.

Xin Xin hummed to herself as she sat on the couch. She wasn’t doing anything at the moment, her mother needing to go out on a few errands and all the guys of the house were holed up in one room, talking about something secret. Getting up and looking out the window, she saw a few other girls about her age outside playing.

“Die, can I go outside and play?” She went and asked him. He nodded, not paying attention to her as he was unused to needing to keep an eye and an ear on a young child at all times. Chang Xin Xin left the house, going outside.

“What’s your name? I’m Diana,” one of the girls, a blond, introduced herself.

“My name is Xin Xin,” answered the Chinese girl.

“Is it foreign? I like it, it’s pretty,” Diana replied. “Wanna play with me and my cousins and my sister?”

“Sure. What are you playing?” Xin Xin wondered.

“Well, Chrissy over there,” Diana said as she pointed to a girl with curly blond hair, “she’s It. And to become not it, she has to tag one of us before we touch the tree. If you get tagged, you’re it.”

Xin Xin nodded. “You guys, time out!” Diana yelled, shocking the quiet and peaceful Xin Xin. All the other girls, a total of seven including Diana and Xin Xin, gathered around in a big circle.

“Girls, this is Xin Xin. Xin Xin, that’s my sister Chrissy,” Diana pointed to the girl who was It. Diana then pointed to two girls who looked almost identical, “Katie and Mary. They’re my twin cousins. And this is my other cousin, Lita.” The last girl was a short girl with dark brown hair.

“Hello,” Xin Xin said in a small voice.

“Let’s play!” One of the twins yelled. Her sister cheered, rushing off. Chrissy chased after them while Lita just sort of vanished into thin air.

“Hey, Xin, I can call you Xin right?” Diana turned to her new friend who nodded, new to the whole thing of having friends her age. “Let’s go hide so Chrissy won’t find us,” the blond told her new friend as she pulled Xin Xin behind her, leading the Chinese girl to a hiding spot.

Xin Xin spent the next hour or so playing with the girls, never even noticing when her Niáng came home. Meiran, who saw her daughter having fun with children her own age, just smiled and let Xin Xin be, knowing this would probably be good for the girl. Inside the house, she found the guys trying to figure out something. With a shrug, she put away the basic groceries they had been in need of and turned on the television.

After a bit, all three guys appeared. Quatre disappeared almost immediately though, saying he needed to make some calls. Trowa sat down in a chair near Meiran and seemed to just stare into empty space. As for Wufei, he sat down next to his wife.

“Where’s Xin Xin?” He asked.

“She’s outside playing with some girls her age,” Meiran replied, only hearing the word Xin Xin.

“Ah,” Wufei answered. He got up and sat on the stairs of the house. After a few minutes he called out to her.

“Bye everyone. My Die’s calling me,” Xin Xin said as she left.

“Die?” Diana asked.

“Daddy,” Xin Xin answered before she ran over to the man.

“Time to come,” Wufei told her. Xin Xin nodded, pausing to wave to her new friends who waved back. She saw something black move down the street but when she looked, there was nothing.

A/N: Yay! A new chapter. It’s only been what, almost a month since the last update. I’m hoping I’ll have two more chapters out before New Years’. I had a few problems with the beginning of the chapter. I spent about two weeks trying to figure out how to move on from the guys’ conversation. Little kids and their lack of grammar are fun to write so expect to see some more of Diana and her family.

I own nothing but Xin Xin, Diana, and Diana’s family.